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N0KFQ > TODAY 14.12.12 18:35l 60 Lines 2636 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Dec 14
Path: IZ3LSV<F1OYP<N9PMO<XE1FH<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 121214/1727Z 32853@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.53
...
Dec 14, 1911:
Amundsen reaches South Pole
Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first explorer to reach the
South Pole, beating his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott.
Amundsen, born in Borge, near Oslo, in 1872, was one of the great
figures in polar exploration. In 1897, he was first mate on a
Belgian expedition that was the first ever to winter in the
Antarctic. In 1903, he guided the 47-ton sloop Gjöa through the
Northwest Passage and around the Canadian coast, the first
navigator to accomplish the treacherous journey. Amundsen planned
to be the first man to the North Pole, and he was about to embark
in 1909 when he learned that the American Robert Peary had
achieved the feat.
Amundsen completed his preparations and in June 1910 sailed
instead for Antarctica, where the English explorer Robert F.
Scott was also headed with the aim of reaching the South Pole. In
early 1911, Amundsen sailed his ship into Antarctica's Bay of
Whales and set up base camp 60 miles closer to the pole than
Scott. In October, both explorers set off--Amundsen using sleigh
dogs, and Scott employing Siberian motor sledges, Siberian
ponies, and dogs. On December 14, 1911, Amundsen's expedition won
the race to the Pole and returned safely to base camp in late
January.
Scott's expedition was less fortunate. The motor sleds broke
down, the ponies had to be shot, and the dog teams were sent back
as Scott and four companions continued on foot. On January 18,
1912, they reached the pole only to find that Amundsen had
preceded them by over a month. Weather on the return journey was
exceptionally bad--two members perished--and a storm later
trapped Scott and the other two survivors in their tent only 11
miles from their base camp. Scott's frozen body was found later
that year.
After his historic Antarctic journey, Amundsen established a
successful shipping business. He later made attempts to become
the first explorer to fly over the North Pole. In 1925, in an
airplane, he flew within 150 miles of the goal. In 1926, he
passed over the North Pole in a dirigible just three days after
American explorer Richard E. Byrd had apparently done so in an
aircraft. In 1996, a diary that Byrd had kept on the flight was
found that seemed to suggest that the he had turned back 150
miles short of its goal because of an oil leak, making Amundsen's
dirigible expedition the first flight over the North Pole.
In 1928, Amundsen lost his life while trying to rescue a fellow
explorer whose dirigible had crashed at sea near Spitsbergen,
Norway.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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